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In my robot building career I've not learnt cad yet, but appreciate that precut metal is a lot more precise than I can get it. I have plans to learn cad after my degree finishes in the summer. But until then wondered if there are any sites where I can order a list of sheets in whatever sizes I want and then drill and bolt it all together?
I believe K-Cut can work from sketches but even doing a simple cad drawings in SketchUp or Fusion 360 is not that hard
Sounds like you want the parts cut without doing the CAD work up front. Much like asking a builder to build a house with no plans. I'd recommend learning CAD first. You could pick up the basics in a weekend of tutorials (at least enough to get designing a robot).
Oh cool ok. Which cad do u all use, I know Inventor and SOLIDWORKS are the main two with Ellis using SOLIDWORKS etc. Which types of files do I need to generate to get to kcut, is fusion 360 the best to start with etc.
Try OnShape good tutorials. Free. Updates regularly. Nothing to install runs in browser. App for phone/tablet.
Solidworks isn't free unless you can get it from work/uni/college, inventor you can get a trial on, but fusion is free, so I would recommend starting with that, all three do the same thing pretty much
What file type is it you all send to kcut
Get yourself fusion 360 to start.
As far as file types, dxf is the standard profile type that any cutting company should accept. I would recommend keeping your parts to 1:1 scale to avoid sizing issues.
There are many more companies out there than K-cut. I did a quick google search and found I had a water cutters just down the road from me that are far cheaper so I've been going to them.
Fusion 360 is easy to learn, free and simple. I just made simple DXF files and sent them to http://www.lasered.co.uk/ for a quote in 1 week bits were back with me. Parts were perfect.
That's brilliant thanku so much for all the help.
I know it's 3 years since the last reply, but Whengparts will happily cut parts from a sketch, and they're cheap too.